Hub and spoke service makes sense…but not so much when you only have two hubs that are 2700km apart.
I always look at all three airlines for flights in Canada - Air Canada, West Jet and Porter. I have yet to fly any other than Air Canada (and usually/often fly Air Canada for US trips too…). Better customer service doesn’t mean anything if I can’t get to where I want to go for a reasonable price, which is the basic function of an airline. Everything else is gravy.
WestJet (as far as I know) has a different business model than a lot of major airlines - they don’t want to overextend themselves, and they aren’t concerned with being all things to all people. Sorry, mnemosyne, but you’re kind of outside of their business model. As an airline that was making money when a lot of other airlines were going bankrupt, I have a hard time arguing with what they’re doing.
If outside of their business model is “need to travel from one major city to another”, then, well, that’s pretty sad. I’ve flown to Toronto a few times and couldn’t get a good price with WestJet for that either. When I met you a few years ago, to Seattle via Calgary, we were with Air Canada (United for the US leg of that trip). I couldn’t get to where I wanted to go with WestJet at the time. Either that, or they were always more expensive or less convenient.
For a Canadian to want to travel in Canada, WestJet simply isn’t yet an option in many cases. I don’t know what else their business model is supposed to be. The single-aircraft type model makes sense, but limits their growth capabilities in large parts of the country.
I encourage them - I want more choices and it’s damn hard to make money as an airline nowadays and they are clearly doing something right. But they are not a national airline - more of a large regional carrier than a national service one - and have a ton of work to do before they get to that level, IMHO.
I guess I just see a lot of random online discussion of WestJet versus Air Canada…when from my perspective there isn’t really a fight, because one half of the battle isn’t even an option. I know I’m the one that brought it up here…I intended just to mention it as a bit of a joke to try and get as many of us from across the country in one place 
And just for fun, I decided to look it up…Air Canada serves Whitehorse directly from Calgary and Vancouver.
Westjet doesn’t serve Whitehorse at all.
So either we all fly AC (or use a regional line like Air North), or we choose another hypothetical place to meet! 
None of this is a dig at WestJet…they will grow. I just enjoy this kind of stuff and think too much about it.
Given the problems of scheduled plane service not going where you want them to go, and trains managing to get lost despite being on rails (Via brought me from Sudbury to North Bay via Parry Sound – once they figured out where were were, the train backed up back to Sudbury), that leaves us with chartering a plane. The folks from Bearskin would be up to the task, and they let you be your own flight attendant.
If by road, then rather than fiddle about with where the centre of Canada lies, I suggest instead meeting at the Nipigon Bridge, which is the only road that conects the east and the west of Canada – if you want to drive from one side of the country to the other, you have to cross that bridge.
That would be cool. I’ve always wanted to see that bridge. [del]And block it.[/del]
I’m a big fan of WestJet, for it made travel affordable from TBay to the centre of the universe (Toronto, for those of you who don’t know). I kid you not, they knocked the fare down by a half and then half of that again. Air Canada has dropped its fares to stay competitive, but prior to Westjet, Air Canada had its hand deep in the pockets of folks around here.
Porter then came along with similarly low prices, but with flights to the core of downtown TO, rather than to the international airport out in Malton, they save me mucho time and mucho cash that otherwise would be spent on ground transport, not to mention more comfortable amenities at their terminal. Of course Air Canada will start to offer flights from the Island, however, given my d’ruthers, I’ll stick with Porter and Westjet, and only use Air Canada as a last resort.
I did!
When it was under repair, I closed a real estate transaction with a fellow who was working on it. It was down to one lane only, and the flagging crews stopped traffic while I jogged out to him. Once I was off the roadway and onto the scaffolding where my client was, they let the traffic proceed, but then stopped traffic again when it came time for me to jog back. For a couple of minutes, I stood in the way of Canada’s progress. 
We were just going to drive - it’s only 2289 km from here! 
There is a polling capability that could be used to decide on what city to go to. Just saying.
I’ve been across that bridge, and obviously, to Nipigon too.
I … think we can find a better place for a Dopefest. There, that’s a nice way to put it.
Porter is absolutely non-existent out here. The only scheduled air service out of town is Air Canada; unless you want to go to Edmonton or Cranbrook BC, in which case, you fly with an outfit like that on the old TV show, “Wings.” And AC only goes to Calgary. It would be nice if we could even get to, say, Regina, Great Falls MT, or Vancouver, but that’s not likely to happen.
Some rail car covers blew off of the parallel rail bridge, so now there is some shelter, if that makes the site any more appealing.
A DopeFest under the Nipigon Bridge would give banned doper SmashTheState an opportuntity to . . . well . . . ah . . .
Perhaps its best after all if we don’t have a DopeFest under the Nipigon Bridge.
Do you guys remember, years ago, a contest by Molson where you could go party in Tuktoyaktuk? I really, really wanted to go to that concert, though I was only 14 at the time.
Think we can get Hole, Metallica, Moist, Cake and Veruca Salt to perform there again? Because that would be freaking awesome.
Depressingly, Team Canada couldn’t dig themselves out of a 6-1 hole and lost the WJHC semi-finals to Russia. They managed to make it 6-5 in the third, nearly giving us a heart attack. They play for Bronze against Finland on Thursday. Oh well, next year…!
Well, I’m not the only one worried - I saw on the news tonight that when they talk to plant people, they are also worried about winter kill - apparently the poplar trees are starting to bud out, and if it freezes up again (as it is most likely to do), it will kill any tender buds. I had a feeling global warming would be a hard sell here; people are enjoying the unseasonably warm weather without a thought for all the downside.
Organize Nipigon’s panhandlers! All three of them. Well, two, ever since Benny got himself a job at the Shell station.
I remember that contest. But it gives rise to an idea: maybe there’s some upcoming (or annual) event somewhere that might make a good reason to gather. Montreal’s Jazz Fest, Orillia’s Mariposa–even Yellowknife’s Folk on the Rocks (now, that would be fun).
I’ve never been to Yellowknife…
I have - once is pretty much enough.
Coworker from Toronto had to fly out here to Regina…via Calgary. With a long layover.
That was an adventure, including getting to Timmy Ho’s 5 minutes before it closed and having to guess his hotel because he didn’t know it.
Ironically, I had flown direct nonstop from Toronto to Saskatoon. But I couldn’t get back to Toronto the same way.